After 126 days of Philadelphia heat in the summer of 1787, Benjamin Franklin rose on unsteady legs to address the final meeting of the Constitutional Convention and frame the meaning and significance of what had been done in those hot days: creation of a new charter for the United States. In a time when criticism of the government from so many quarters and with such vehemence, what Franklin said should give us all pause as he addressed the misgivings of some of those who were critical of the work they had just done. He said:
"I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected?" (Pg. 653, James Madison, Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787)
If the brightest intellects of that day can receive such a sobering evaluation notwithstanding the work to which they have put their effort, can we, today, expect more from those in whom we entrust the future of our country? I don’t think so. If we wait for angels to govern us there will never be a government. Our government from that day, so long ago, to today has always been the acts of flawed men and women, because human kind does not come in any other model. The proper measure of any person is not his or her flaws but what he or she accomplished in spite of those flaws.
So, instead of standing in judgment of our elected officials, humility would seem to demand from us forbearance, patience and respect, not for what they have done in every instance to our satisfaction, but for what they have resisted doing in opposition to their lesser angels. In Texas Aggie language that means, "Hey guys, cut the President some slack! You ain’t batting 1000% in your life!"